Kindred Spirits
by PacmanAteMyCookie
Summary: Naruto is ANBU. Gaara is the Kazekage. Sunagakure and Konohagakure are at war. One of Narutos missions sends him face to face with Gaara. What will happen to Naruto, and how will it influence the war? GaaNaru fic. YAOI. Longer summary in first author note
1. Chapter 1

Hello ^_^

Short summary: After Sasuke disappears completly, Naruto turns cold and emotionless. he joins the ANBU, and with a war going on, he's got more than enough missions to tend to

He soon gets a mission that turns his entire world upside down, a mission that makes him stand face to face with Gaara

How will this meeting change both the path Naruto is on, but also the path the war is going.

**GaaNaru later. YAOI, don't like don't read, it's that easy**

_**Slight mentioning of SasuNaru**_

_**Rated T because of Violence, and later, Yaoi action or what ever xD**_

_Seriously, if I owned Naruto, do you really think it would have that **much** plot, and that **little** smexi yaoi action? Nope, me neither, so there you've got it_

_I don't own anything but the plot in this story xD_

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**Chapter 1: Perfect example**

He stood completely still, his back against a tree. The only sound coming from his being his breath, nearly impossible to detect. He was listening careful for his opponent, a messenger, who he was told was carrying information, which was vital for Konoha.

He felt an enemy chakra nearing, and his breath stilled completely, his hands clenching into tight fists at his sides. He closed his eyes for a short second, hating himself for what he was about to do.

His could sense that his target had stopped moving, and the messenger was on the other side of the tree, still oblivious to the fact that he was being watched.

The ANBU slowly drew his blade from its casing, his entire body stiffening, preparing itself for battle.

With his free hand, he made sure his mask was in place, and then he attacked.

His opponent was both inexperienced compared to his attacker and taken by surprised, giving the ANBU a huge advantage.

He swung his katana, and his opponent ducked out of its range. But already having figured out his next move, the ANBU stopped in mid-swing, only to turn around, spinning around himself, making a low kick at the messenger's legs, knocking him on the ground.

The messenger got to his feet quickly, but in the same time, gave his attacker an opening, and in mere seconds, the ANBU had the messenger pinned to a tree, katana by his throat.

Emotionless eyes starred at the messenger. He was clearly new to being all alone in the field. Probably around the 15-16 years of age. He was nothing but a kid. He wasn't the grown up, fearless ninja he tried to act as, that part was clear, since there was nothing but fear to detect in his dark-brown eyes.

The ANBU was disgusted with himself, as he tightened his iron-grip around the poor kids throat.

"Hand over the scrolls, kid, and I might let you live."

He knew the last part was a lie, but he wanted the boy to give up without having to cause him more pain than necessary.

"No way! I'm no traitor!"

The boy seemed to have regained some will to live and the fear in his eyes was now mingled with pure willpower and loyalty to his village. The ANBU remembered with sadness, when he had been this innocent and unknowing about the true ways of the ninja.

"Listen, you're not getting away from here alive. So, either you hand over the scrolls by your self, and I'll kill you without any pain, or, I'll have to take them by force."

As if to prove his point, he moved his katana closer to the young boy throat, cutting the outer layer of skin, making a thin line of blood forming on his suntanned skin.

The boy groaned silently at the pain.

The ANBU saw an opportunity to make the boy give in.

"Remember, this is nothing compared to what will happen to you if you don't do as I say."

His voice betrayed no sign of the inner turmoil that always haunted him, when he had to kill to complete his missions.

Something the ANBU couldn't quite identify flickered past the boy's eyes, but for a second it looked like the boy considered going the easy way. But as fast as it had been there, it was gone, and determination had replaced it.

"I won't go down without a fight." He said, his right hand reaching for the kunai-container on his thigh.

"Then, I'm sorry."

With a movement so fast, the blade became nothing but a blur, the ANBU had cut of the young boy's right arm, and he fell to the ground, crying out in pain. The ground around the boy was slowly turning red from the blood.

In another blur-like movement, the ANBU was now behind the crying boy, who was holding on to where his right arm used to be. He buried his left hand in the boys dark-blonde hair, tilting his head back.

The ANBU didn't have to look the boy in the eyes to know that the look of determination had vanished, leaving only fear and defeat behind.

The boy was crying ever so quietly.

"You should have chosen the first solution." He said coldly as he slit the boy's throat with a quick move of his katana.

The young ninja's limp body fell over and hit the ground with an empty 'thud', and the small clearing was once again dead-silent.

He kneeled besides the body, and started searching for the targeted scrolls. He found them on the bottom of the boys backpack, next to a homemade bento-box, and a note saying

_Good luck out there_

_Be careful._

_I love you._

_Mom._

He crumbled the note in his hands, as I he got up and started running in the direction of his village. The three words on the second-last line had made the whole thing that much more horrible, and just plain **wrong**.

Someone had loved this kid, and somebody was going to cry when he didn't return home. Somebody would grieve over his death for years to come.

He didn't have that.

He had nobody to tell him that they loved him. Nobody to make him lunch. Nobody to hide little notes next to it, telling him to be careful, because they would want him back in one piece. He didn't have anyone who would grieve his passing, like this boy's mother would.

Sure, he had friends, but it wasn't really anything compared to really being loved by someone.

And really loving someone.

There had only been one person to give him the hopes of having that. But that person had vanished from the surface of the earth three years ago, leaving the him alone, without any hopes of ever finding true love again.

A feeling of loss suddenly overwhelmed him, causing him to stop mid-track, in the middle of the forest.

"Damn you Sasuke!"

He ripped his ANBU mask of, revealing a pair of baby-blue eyes, overflowing with tears, that had been held back for too long. The mask fell from his hands, as Narutos knees gave in underneath him, making him fall to the earth. He slammed his fist into the ground, the tears now falling freely from his eyes.

Three years ago, Sasuke had, for some unknown reason, stopped trying to get revenge with Konoha. Naruto and his teammates, Sakura and Sai, accompanied by Hyuga Neji and Rock Lee, had even been the ones to track down the remains of Sasukes team Hawk, and after having them tell that Sasuke had grown tired of playing around with such amateurs, as they had so politely put it, been the ones to kill them off.

Opposite of what Naruto had been hoping for, Sasuke hadn't returned to Konoha. He'd done the complete opposite, and disappeared. Naruto had spent the following months looking for him, but when war between Konohagakure and Sunagakure had erupted, Naruto had to give up his hopes of ever finding Sasuke.

Naruto didn't even know if Sasuke was alive or not. He chose to believe the latter.

The loss of Sasuke had made Naruto cold. He wasn't the smiling, laughing, innocent kid he'd once been. He rarely betrayed any signs of emotions. Even Sai was more expressive than him. It had worried, and still did, his comrades back at Konoha. Naruto didn't really care.

Shortly after war broke out, Naruto had been asked to join the ANBU, and he'd accepted without any second thoughts. ANBU was about being able to completely turn of your emotions and act as an extended limb of the hokage, which was exactly what Naruto needed at that point.

At times his emotions did betray him, none the less. There had been a few times, where he had laughed with Sakura, Shikamaru and the others, but it didn't warm him the way laughing had did, back when Sasuke was still with him.

Other times, when he couldn't control his emotions perfectly, was at times like this one. When he had to kill kids. He knew that as a ninja, there wasn't any difference to a 15 year old, and someone who was well over 20, but it still seemed so wrong to end such a young life. He wasn't even that old himself. He was only turning 20 next month.

The main reason for him to think that way was that he still could remember how the world had been shaped in his head, back when he was 16. Even though he'd experienced a lot for a teen, he'd still had a pure mind, it hadn't been destroyed, like it was now, and his hands hadn't been red with blood from kids back then.

He'd been able to recognize his old self in the brown eyes of his latest victim, which had made the kill almost impossible for him, since it had felt like he was killing of the last part of his inner child.

"And it's all your fault, teme."

He wiped away his tears, and got up again. He picked up his mask, looking its fox-like shape. It was painted such that it somewhat resembled the nine-tailed fox, that was still sealed inside of him. The only real difference being the colors, which had changed from orange with black markings from the eyes, to white with red markings.

He put the mask on his face once again, and in the same way the mask hid his face, it also was also a way to completely hide his emotions, even if his wall should crack a tiny bit, nobody would be able to see his face to see it.

And once again, he was heading at full speed towards Konoha, with his precious cargo safely put away in the bag on his back.

* * *

"Do you have any updates on the Sand-nins to the east?" The present hokage, Tsunade, let a hand brush trough her blonde hair, as the ANBU captain let her in on their latest discovering.

The ANBU in a tiger-like mask looked at the scroll in his hands.

"It seems that they have disappeared." He scratched his black hair with his free hand.

"What? Let me see that!" Tsunade rose from her seat, and grabbed the scroll from the ANBU captain.

Her eyes roamed the paper, and true enough, according to the observations written down on the scroll, from one day to another, the sand-nins in the eastern part of the forest, had packed up, and left their location.

"Do you think they discovered we knew they were there?" she handed over the scroll, and looked at the captain.

"That is a possibility. And from the footprints we could find, it seems that they are heading back to Suna. My conclusion is either they found out they were being watched, or they completed whatever their mission was, and headed home."

"Damn it. They were a great source of information. Well, we'll just wish for Naruto to return successfully from his mission." She said as she once again dumped down in her chair.

"I'm sure Uzumaki-san will finish the mission without any complications. He's one of the most capable members of the ANBU as of now."

The captain put down the scroll they'd just gone over, along with some others, containing the more trivial information gathered, and walked towards the door, bowing slightly for the hokage, before he closed the door behind him.

Tsunade sighed. This war was giving her a migraine.

It had been going on for almost three years now. So many battles had been fought, and so many lives had been lost. It had come to a point where Tsunade had trouble remembering what had started the war in the beginning.

She started rubbing her temples, trying to calm down her head.

"Am I interrupting?"

The emotionless voice came from the window behind her. And hearing how empty the once so joyful and soulful voice sounded, always sent a chill down her back.

She turned her chair to face the blonde-haired ANBU, who was sitting in a cat-like position in the window.

"Naruto. Since you've returned, I expect your mission went smooth and effortlessly?"

She folded her hands in her lap as she looked at him, and hated what Sasuke and the war had turned him into.

He reached out his bag to her, his eyes seeming to drill into her mind. She shuddered slightly as she took it from him and opened it.

She tore her eyes away from his stare and looked into the bag.

Upon seeing the scrolls in it, she smiled.

"Perfect work, as always Naruto."

She raised her head to look Naruto in the eyes, but her eyes were only met by the black holes in his mask.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama. My report is in there too." He nodded at her once and then jumped out the window. He was out of sight in nothing more but a couple of seconds.

She sighed.

"He's a perfect example to the horrible effects the war can have on people."

She muttered as she started going over the scrolls Naruto had given her.

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Cold Naruto actually scares me..

Oh well, i hope you liked it, and that it wasn't to difficult to read xD ANYWAYS... this is my first Naruto Fan fic, so please a review is very much apreciated ^_^

It makes Naruto happier too :3


	2. Chapter 2

Im sorry for the lack of Gaara in the first chapter, please forgive me?

I promise, he will show up before you know it ^_^

Oh well, here's the next chapter!

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**Chapter 2: The façade starts melting**

Naruto pushed down on the door-handle, and the door opened with a _*creak*_

He frowned slightly.

"I should probably get that fixed." He muttered, his voice sounding like he couldn't give a damn about the door and its errors.

He walked inside and shut the door behind him.

Two things hadn't changed about him. He still loved ramen and tending to plants. The latter being the reason for his apartment overflowing with all sorts of plants and flowers. When he wasn't on missions, he had nothing else to do but pace around in his apartment, watering the occasional plant, here and there.

His fingers lightly brushed the leaves on one of the plants, feeling its smooth and cool surface, as he headed for his kitchen.

He started heating some water, and as he waited for it to boil he picked a cup of quick ramen from one of the cabinets in his kitchen.

When the water was ready, he poured it over the ramen.

Even though being an ANBU had improved his patience, he still hated the three minutes he had to wait for the ramen to get ready.

He slowly stirred the noodles around, while gazing out the window. He had a perfect view over the cliff with the five Hokages faces sculptured into it. His eyes stayed on the face resembling his father's.

This war was getting out of control. The kid in the forest hadn't been the first around that age that Naruto'd had to kill. And it was all because of this stupid war.

"You would've known what to do, right dad?"

He sighed once, before returning his attention to his now-ready ramen cup. He ate it, even thought, as always, thinking about the war made him loose him appetite. His eyes continued to drift of to the face of his dad every couple of minutes.

As he rose from his chair, and started cleaning up after his dinner, there was a knock on his door.

"It's open!" he shouted, not even bothering to sound polite.

He heard the footsteps of his visitor come closer, and Naruto turned as the ninja entered his kitchen.

"What do you want, Shikamaru?"

It was never any good news when an ANBU showed up at your place. It either meant someone close to you had been killed, or that there was a mission to attend to. Seeing as Naruto didn't have any close ones, the latter was always the reason. And today was no exception.

He knew that one would be coming up soon; Naruto just wished he'd had time to get some sleep before it was time to leave again.

"Hokage-sama wants to see you." Shikamaru was leaning on the doorframe to the kitchen, his mask in his hand.

"Tell her I'm on my way." Naruto walked past Shikamaru and headed for his bedroom, he didn't even bother to look at him.

"I will." and with that, Shikamaru disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving Naruto by himself, once again.

He sighed heavily as he put on his mask, and went into his bedroom to stock up on kunais, just incase. And then he was on his way to the Hokage office, for the second time within an hour.

* * *

"And you're sure these informations are correct?"

The ANBU captain asked, as he looked up from the scrolls.

"Positive. We'll have to act fast, though. He'll only be here for half a day or something like that."

The captain nodded.

"Nara Shikamaru was sent to get Uzumaki Naruto, and Shikamaru just informed us that the Uzumaki is going to be here any minute." He said, looking back at the information spread out on the table.

And with that, Naruto appeared in the window.

"You do know we have door right?" Tsunade asked the masked silhouette in the window.

"I prefer this." He said as he jumped to the floor, and went to stand in front of the Hokage.

"You have a mission for me?"

Tsunade opened one of the drawers of her desk and grabbed a scroll from it.

"Here. This contains the exact coordinates for your target, and when you'll be able to find him there."

She handed Naruto the scroll.

"Who's my target?" he asked, while turning the scroll in his hands.

Tsunade motioned for him to sit down.

Naruto sat down at a chair placed in front of Tsunades desk, as she started to explain the mission she was sending him on.

"The scrolls you retrieved for us contain information about Sunas movements to and from their hideout, somewhere in the forest surrounding us. We had discovered a small hide-out in the eastern part of the forest. And combining the information we were able to gather there with the ones on the scrolls you gave us, we've been able to discover that someone very influential to the war is coming to their hideout. And he will be your target. He will be traveling with one or two guards, in an attempt to go undiscovered. He will only be at the coordinates for a short period of time, so you have to act fast. We suspect that he himself will be trying to gather information about our movement plans, which you are to make an end to."

"I ask you once again. Who. Is. My. Target?"

Naruto spoke through clenched teeth. It seemed as thought Tsunade was avoiding his question, and he hated when people didn't answer his questions.

"Well. This is the reason I was having second thoughts about choosing you for this mission."

Naruto starred coldly at her through his mask, with his arms over cross.

Tsunade sighed; it was obvious that Naruto didn't want to know about her having second thoughts on this mission.

"Alright then." She held a short break before continuing.

"Your target is Sabaku no Gaara, the Kazekage of Sunagakure."

Naruto felt his eyes pop wide open. The feeling of tiredness he had been fighting was completely gone now.

Gaara.

He'd all but forgotten the red-haired boy from Sunagakure, who'd become Kazekage while he'd been away training with Jiraya.

The same person who understood perfectly what Naruto had gone through, being the host of a tailed beast.

When Naruto had been younger, he'd always thought of Gaara as a kind of kindred spirit.

The fact that he was now ordered to kill him, made him stomach churn, and he had to focus on not hyperventilating.

"But know this: we don't mean that you have to kill the Kazekage, mainly because doing so would just worsen the war between us. But we do need you to do whatever you can to stop his plans, what ever they are. "

"You do know, Gaara will not spare me, not even one bit?" Naruto was grateful that his voice hadn't shook while he spoke.

"I'm aware of that. If things come to that, you are of course allowed to fight to kill, but only if necessary, I don't want this war to spin more out of control than it already is."

Naruto nodded, knowing he wouldn't be able to keep his voice from shaking right now.

It was easy to figure out, despite what Tsunade had said that one of them was going to die in this battle. The question was who? Himself or Gaara?

* * *

Naruto fell down on his bed, after just finished reading the details of his mission.

Gaara was to arrive in a week from this day. He was going to have an escort, but they wouldn't be a problem. There were only two problems, as far as Naruto could see.

First, he didn't know **why** Gaara was coming. It was probably to spy or something, but why would he show up himself? Naruto just couldn't figure out why the Kazekage was showing up himself. It worried him a bit, as a Konoha ninja, that the leader of the city they were at war with was coming to 'check out' things himself.

Second, and most importantly, Naruto doubted if he even would be able to kill Gaara if he had to.

One thing was killing people he'd never met before, people he didn't even know the names of, that was difficult enough for him as it was.

But he knew Gaara. When he was younger, he'd even considered Gaara a friend, someone who understood him. He'd fought hard and long to rescue the Kazekage from the Akatsuki, and now, he might actually have to kill him?

Ever since he'd rescued Gaara from the Akatsuki, Naruto'd felt a special bond between the two of them, even thought he didn't really see him that much after saying goodbye to him after saving him.

But after the war started, making the two of them enemies, he shouldn't even be having this discussion with himself. He should be able to kill Gaara without giving it any second thoughts.

He should at least be able to forget their long-lost friendship and try to act as he didn't care about the Kazekage.

But he couldn't.

Truth be told, he wished he was still friends with Gaara.

He hated the situation he was putting himself in, by accepting the mission. But he also knew, that if he refused, someone else would take it, and they wouldn't care if they had to kill Gaara.

Naruto doubted that anyone would be able to do so, but he still felt obliged to take this mission himself.

And he suspected that one of the main reasons he was taking the mission was because he wanted to see Gaara again.

No. he wouldn't be able to kill Gaara, he wouldn't even be able to try. He cared to much about the Kazekage, even though they were supposed to be enemies.

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Aww, he **cares** about Gaara :3

Next chapter will be Naruto's mission :o That means Gaara, and, maybe just maybe, some GaaNaru action ^_^

Reviews are very appreciated!


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